Tuesday, November 20, 2007

IVR system for exam results abandoned by Comp Sci, taken over by systems. Reclaimed by CS, systems resisting reclamation. Need to get a number to registrar ASAP and inform CS they should get over it. Sorting out hand off of old CS number to IT service.

Reno 911: World's largest reboot underway

The sound of 10,000 OSes clapping

You were up all night writing those last lines of code to ensure mega-demonstration success. And this code is a real pain in the ass to deal with because it has to spread across a 72-processor cluster. But, with a bit of perseverance, you nail it, pop open a beer and wait for the glories to follow when show attendees see your genius on the conference floor.

Cut to the actual demo, and you're screwed to all hell when the power goes out.

Yes, Supercomputing 07 went through what could be the world's largest, collective reboot of all time. At about noon today, the immense amount of hardware here in Reno killed the power system and then killed it again a few seconds later. Lights went out. The machines stopped humming. And a few claps scattered throughout the crowd - a machismo kind of thing no doubt: my cluster is too big for your power station.

As the power returned, machines of all shapes and sizes rebooted. There were Windows log-in screens everywhere. Versions of Linux going through their routines. There were also the frantic types pulling off their chassis casings when their systems failed to come back to life.

Er, this was a kick ass protein folding demo

Every year, the machines present at Supercomputing combine to form the equivalent of one of the world's largest machines. Some of the machines here make an HP Superdome look like a tinkertoy.

Breath deep. It'll all be okay

Sanity seemed to hold though as these folks temporarily lost their precious machines, which as an encouraging sign. Now, the electricity collapse can be enjoyed as a point of pride. ®

Update:

As we understand it, the power outage occurred after some renegade plugged in a four-socket Itanium server using the new Montvale chips. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

CANBERRA (Reuters) - An Australian barmaid has been fined for crushing beer cans between her bare breasts while an off-duty colleague has been fined for hanging spoons from her friend's nipples, police said Wednesday.

Police in Western Australia said the 31-year old barmaid pleaded guilty in the local magistrate's court to twice exposing her breasts to patrons at the Premier Hotel in Pinjarra, south of the state capital, Perth.

The woman "is alleged to have also crushed beer cans between her breasts during one of the offences," in breach of hotel licensing laws, police from the Peel district of Western Australia said in a statement.

The barmaid and the hotel manager were both fined A$1,000 ($900), while an off-duty barmaid was fined A$500 for helping to hang spoons from the woman's nipples, police said.

"It sends a clear message to all licensees in Peel that we will not tolerate this type of behavior in our licensed premises," local police superintendent David Parkinson said.

Friday, October 26, 2007

In The Shuttleworth Lab, you can never be too careful about those pesky students...It's a good thing that someone managed to secure the distribution board by locking the corner shut against itself. Imagine what might happen if someone could open it.

Every year I attempt to boost my students' final grades by giving them this relatively simple exam consisting of 100 True/False questions from only 3 chapters of material. For the past 20 years that I have taught Intro Communications 101 at this institution I have never once seen someone score below a 65 on this exam. Consequently, your score of a zero is the first in history and ultimately brought the entire class average down a whole 8 points.

There were two possible answer choices: A (True) and B (False). You chose C for all 100 questions in an obvious attempt to get lucky with a least a quarter of the answers. It's as if you didn't look at a single question. Unfortunately, this brings your final grade in this class to failing. See you next year!

A senior official with legal responsibilities at the University of Cape Town had been suspended from the practice of law in the United States for eighteen months before taking up his job at the university. Dr Paul Ngobeni took up the position of deputy registrar (legal services and secretariat) at UCT in September this year. He was suspended from legal practice in Connecticut in late 2005, and continues to face a series of misconduct and criminal charges in that state.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

BOFH: A tragic accident

Workplace safety just ain't what it used to be

It's an exceptionally quiet morning at Mission Control and the PFY and I are killing time by rifling through the director's PA's drawers to see if she left anything good behind when she departed the company.

"Ah... excuse me?" a voice asks haltingly from behind the partition.

"Yep?" the PFY asks, always willing to help out.

"I'm looking for the manager of systems and networks?"

"Ah, well, unfortunately he's gone."

"Do you know when he'll be back?"

"He'll never be back - he's gone," the PFY responds.

"What my assistant is trying to say is that he has left the company following a workplace accident," I add.

"Really? What happened?"

"He unfortunately fell into the path of an oncoming cab."

"What?! When was this?"

"Last friday lunchtime," the PFY says gazing into the distance thoughtfully. "I remember because it was the deadline he'd given us to install some patches on our system. It didn't happen and he came to the pub to find out why and get us back onto the job. On exiting the pub I observed a cab, black in colour, coming down the street and that my manager appeared not to have noticed it. I reached out to grab his jacket just as he tripped into the path of the vehicle."

"Really? Was he ok?"

"A few bumps and bruises, a loss of accurate memory of events preceding the event, but apart from that he's ok – but he's decided to move on."

"I... see," the bloke says slowly. "Perhaps then I could speak with his immediate superior?"

"And there's a funny thing," I say. "The IT director, returning to the office that same afternoon, heard of the boss' misfortune and grasped the wrong end of the stick and presumed that the injury may not have been accidental in nature. He immediately sought me out in the stairwell on the floor above preparing to move a trolleyload of boxes of old lineflow paper. As he entered the stairwell below me I realised that (a) I hadn't needed to bring the paper up to that floor to dispose of it in the first place and (b) the lift would be a better way to get it to the basement. In executing a 180 degree turn one of the boxes of paper slipped from the top of the trolley and fell onto the director."

"Oh. How about your helpdesk supervisor?"

"Again, a workplace tragedy. He'd asked us to ensure that all our calls were passed through the helpdesk system so that they could be logged in his database - and in order to do this had our DDI numbers redirected by a telco contractor without our knowledge. My assistant here went to speak to him about how we could facilitate the return of the DDI numbers and accidentally knocked a desk lamp into the fish tank at the exact moment that he happened to be cleaning it..."

"Someone – anyone - FROM the helpdesk?"

"Gone also - but nothing to do with us. They're all on sick leave after ordering a dodgy pizza from the place across town that has a web ordering service and free delivery. Apparently there was some glitch in the webform which resulted in the words 'powdered glass' being entered into the freeform text box under 'additional toppings'. Ordinarily this would have not been a problem as they don't have this stuff on hand in the store except that the exceptionally customer-focused delivery person stopped off on the way and added it."

"That's terrible!"

"I know," the PFY says. "That someone with the dedication to go the extra mile for the customer is treated so shabbily. As luck would have it though, once we heard of his availability we were able to offer him a position in our helpdesk starting next week. And wouldn't you know it – he's just finished a degree in IT!'

"I... see. So is there anyone I can talk to? Your security consultant?"

"Cycling accident."

"Business analysts?"

"They got trapped in a lift over a bank holiday weekend with no water supply. Not pretty, as I'm sure you can imagine. Of course they're both nuttier than monkey crap now and have an extended stay in the dribbling academy..."

...a few minutes later...

"So there's no one?"

"Just us," the PFY says.

Sigh. Okay, well I'm here to audit the IT portion of your business process for the company's annual business stability rating."

"Which means?"

"Well I'll just need to verify that you're following best practice in change controls, security management, access control, logging, and suchlike. So I'll need to see all supporting documents so that I can check them for completeness."

it seems that microsoft is trying something different and is no longer recommending their own media player (or any player for that matter) for wmv files. and before you say that the site needs to be run on ie... it did not work there either.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

ALBANY, Oct. 17 — Millions of people have paused to stand amid the hustle, bustle and neon of Times Square.

And sure, those who pause — to gawk, talk or eat a gyro — can slow the progress of pedestrians around them.

But when Matthew Jones of Brooklyn lingered on the corner of 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue in the early morning of June 12, 2004, gabbing with friends as other pedestrians tried to get by, something unusual happened: He was arrested for it.

The kicker to the piece is quite amusing:

The court is likely to rule on the case next month. Should it rule against Mr. Jones, the available evidence on the scene on Wednesday suggested that the police would soon have their hands full.

Just before 5 p.m., near the corner where Mr. Jones was arrested, stood the following assemblage: a man eating clams out of a Styrofoam container; two men smoking cigarettes together; a man waiting for a woman to finish a phone call; a guy looking at a map; a young woman sending a text message; two men handing out tour brochures; and a family of five, including an infant in a stroller, who stopped to look at the brochures.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Whenever you visit a game park, you're always told to keep a safe distance from the animals and/or to stay in your car. I guess slightly more graphic measures are needed for these walk-through animal farms.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO, a man was hanged for murder after police used new technology to nab him. Now new technology has shown that the wrong man was executed as the body found in his cellar was not that of his wife.

Dr Hawley Crippen was hanged in 1910, after an Old Bailey jury found him guilty of murdering his wife, Cora, who had vanished earlier that year.

After friends of his wife reported their fears that missing Cora had been murdered, Crippen and his mistress headed for Belgium before boarding a ship bound for Canada. They were disguised as father and son, but the ship's captain became suspicious and alerted police using the newly invented wireless telegraph.

But DNA evidence now shows that a dismembered body found at Crippen's London house was not that of his wife, reports The Manchester Grauniad.

Using a sample kept at the Royal London Hospital, American forensic scientists compared mitochondrial DNA from the remains presented at the trial with samples taken from Cora Crippen's surviving relatives.

Dr David Foran, head of forensic science programme at Michigan State University, told the Grauniad:. "That body cannot be Cora Crippen, we're certain of that."

Before he was hanged, Crippen wrote: "I am innocent and some day evidence will be found to prove it." µ

[thank you coolest-of-all-sites The Smoking Gun!Microsoft boss Bill Gates was photographed by the Albuquerque, New Mexico police in 1977 after a traffic violation (details of which have been lost over time).]

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

I got an official warning from my bank I usually pay my rent as "Columbian Drug Money", they never objected but then I forgot my mates cell phone number, we were both doing internet banking at the same time right welcome to my room so I give him a 1 cent payment going "What's your number" and we start having this whole conversation it was like webchat so like 87 payments later, the bank rings me up and were like "have you thought of getting MSN?"